Students learning English as a second language will benefit from continual questions that force them to deepen their vocabularies and sentence structures. When an ESL teacher uses the Socratic Method, students are forced learn new methods of expressing themselves instead of simply relying on the same words and constructions over and over again. Further, the Socratic Method is an excellent way to teach and practice asking and answering questions among ESL students. Students learn that there are different ways of responding to different types of questions.
The instructor-student or peer writing conference, often used in the English classroom, has long relied on the Socratic Method. In writing conferences, teachers or peers read a student's writing and then discuss that writing with the student in an attempt to better understand the student's goal. Finally, the peer or teacher makes suggestion to help the student improve the text. Often, those suggestions take the form of Socratic Method questions, which encourage the writer to re-see and think critically about her subject matter. For example, if a student wrote that the death penalty should be abolished, the teacher or student reviewing the paper might ask, "Would this interfere with states' rights? Why or why not?"
Instead of simply reading the book to the students or having them answer packets of comprehension questions, many teachers now teach literature through discussions using the Socratic Method. Teachers may start a discussion on a piece of literature by having one or more students recap the facts and point out some literary techniques. However, teachers next usually pose questions about how students reacted to the text, why the author used certain rhetorical choices and the characters' motivations. When students start to agree, the teacher uses the Socratic Method to ask a challenging question that encourages them to re-consider their points of view.
In English classrooms where speech writing and public speaking is employed, teachers may use the Socratic Method to encourage students to learn how to speak about their topics extemporaneously. In other words, teachers may listen to a student's speech, then "play the devil's advocate" by asking them a question related to their opposition's point of view or asking them to apply the opinion they advocated in the speech to other scenarios or ideas. This not only helps students to think critically about the positions they support but also helps them prepare to engage in debate.